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How to get 'word of mouth reviews' for pubs - Getting your customers to promote your business

Alcohol from supermarkets and socialising in cafes are changing the way that people use pubs. But when it comes to the competition, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ is really not an option.

A pub is a pub, and all it needs to get customers coming in time and time again is to appeal to the right people.

What is the best way to appeal to the types of people that would enjoy going to your pub?

In the same way that you would visit a new restaurant, try a new takeaway or go and see a film that someone has recommended to you – if a friend tells you it’s good, then you believe them.

So, how does this apply to your pub? Simple – if you let your customers do the promotion for you, then more and more customers like them will start turning up.

This leads us nicely back to the question of how exactly to do this. This article will talk through some options that may seem obvious, as well as other ideas that you may not have thought of.

Promotions at your pub

Offering your existing clients a promotion which involves bringing someone else with them to the pub almost guarantees that your pub will become exposed to someone of the same ilk, who is likely to love your pub as much as the person who recommended it to them. Examples of promotions which do this well include:

Promotions to bring a specific person. Perhaps their other half on Valentine’s Day, their child for their birthday or their dad on Father’s Day.

Promotions that only apply for a minimum number of people. This could be something like ‘free beers when 4 people order food from the bar/restaurant’.

Promotions to bring the family. Something like ‘kids eat free with 2 or more adults’ is always popular and is definitely the kind of message that happy mums will pass on to their friends.

Provide free wifi at your pub

This might sound a little daft as a way to get your customers to promote your pub for you, but really, it’s very straightforward.

Firstly, in this day and age, if a person is somewhere that doesn’t have signal or access to the internet to check up on their social media accounts, the football score or whether they have received an important email, they’re not going to stick around at that place for long before itchy fingers make them reach for their coat and their mobile phone.

So, providing free wifi will get your customers to stay. But how does it get them to promote your pub?

Make sure that wherever your wifi access code is, your pub’s social media account details are next to it. That way, when they ‘check in’ at the pub online, they’re going to tag your pub. This makes sure that their friends see exactly which pub they’re happy to associate themselves with because they have said that they are there.

If they’re not the kind of person to check in, they may still be someone who will take a photograph whilst they’re at the pub.

What works well for photographs is having something that people think is funny or interesting to take a photograph of.

Even better, if they can be in the photograph too!

The types of things that work well for photographs include funny quotes, risqué pub signs or quirky, decorative pieces of furniture. In short, anything that is going to get noticed by a customer, so that they then, in turn, receive attention online. A good example is this Single Dolphin Poseur Table by Trent

Furniture, which is the perfect pedestal for a perfectly poured pint or colourful cocktail to be photographed on before the photograph is posted online.

How do you go one step better at your pub?

Interact with your customers online. When they do tag your pub in a photograph of them with their friends or family, or a hearty plate of food placed upon an interesting table - be grateful and say ‘thank you’ or ‘great photo!’. This is where people who haven’t visited your pub will get the impression that it’s a nice place to be directly from you – which adds even further credibility to their friends’ recommendations.

Hopefully, this will provide you with a starting point to start brainstorming about what might work to get your customers talking to their friends and family about their favourite pub!

At Trent Furniture, we are specialists in providing furniture for pubs and pub restaurants, so it’s safe to say that we have spent a fair amount of time in lots of different ones. For advice or a second opinion about pubs and pub furniture, contact us today.